KWC was originally formed in February 2000 when Kyocera acquired
Qualcomm's
San Diego, California-based terrestrial handset division. Upon the purchase of Qualcomm's business unit, Kyocera formed
Kyocera Wireless Corp. (KWC). In 2003, Kyocera Wireless India (KWI), based in
Bangalore, was established as a fully owned subsidiary of KWC, expanding KWC's reach into India's CDMA markets. However, in September 2009, KWC sold KWI to
Mindtree Ltd. of Bangalore, India. In 2008, Kyocera Corp. acquired the mobile phone division of
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. for $375 million, making it the world's sixth-largest cell phone company. On April 1, 2008, it took the North American assets of
Sanyo and created
Kyocera Sanyo Telecom, Inc. (KSTI). It also announced that it was entering the GSM handset market, with a focus on the Latin American market. Kyocera continued selling Sanyo-branded phones throughout 2010. On April 1, 2009, Kyocera announced the integration of KWC and KSTI, creating a new, consolidated division called
Kyocera Communications, Inc. (KCI), with the headquarters remaining in its San Diego location. KCI remains one of North America's larger handset manufacturers, providing products to multiple wireless carriers including
Cingular Wireless,
AT&T,
Boost Mobile,
Cricket Wireless,
MetroPCS,
Public Mobile,
Sprint Corporation,
T-Mobile US,
U.S. Cellular,
Verizon Wireless, and
Virgin Mobile USA. In October 2011, Sprint began offering Kyocera's
Dura Series, an exclusive line of rugged phones manufactured by Kyocera Communications using Sprint's new
CDMA-based Push to talk service
Sprint Direct Connect. In August 2014, Kyocera released the
Kyocera Brigadier, the first U.S. smartphone to be equipped with a display made of
sapphire glass. This technology was carried over to the
Verizon-distributed versions of the Duraforce Pro (announced August 2016, South Korea name Kyocera Torque) and the Duraforce Pro 2 (announced November 2018). In 2022, Kyocera developed transmissive metasurface technology; a technology to improve performance and coverage area for
5G networks. In April 2023, Kyocera acquired 37 acres of land in Isahaya City,
Nagasaki Prefecture. The land was acquired to build a new smart factory that will produce ceramic components used in
semiconductor applications and packages. ==References==